Keeping It Real Loving Caring Sharing in the Neighborhood Institute Inc. is dedicated to provide health opportunities to those struggling with HIV/AIDS pandemic in Louisville/Jefferson County Metro. The Kentucky Department of Public Health Cabinet for Health and Family Services under the Health Resources and Services Administration ( HRSA ) Ryan White Part B program empowers Keeping It Real to provide health services to persons living with HIV/AIDS in urban neighborhoods. Keeping it Real is recognized as a nonprofit public charity under section 501 c 3 of the Internal Revenue Code.
These Health Goals and Initiatives will Address the following Entities:
Non-Medical Case Management
Health Education / Risk Reduction
Emergency Financial Assistance
Food Bank and Home Delivery Services
Medical Transportation
Early Intervention Services
Outreach
Definition of Services
Non- Medical Case Management
Case management services (non-medical) include the provision of advice and assistance
In obtaining medical, social, community, legal, financial, and other needed services. Non-medical case management does not involve coordination and follow-up of medical treatments.
Services:
Non-Medical Case Management is a collaborative process that assesses, educates, plans, implements, coordinates, monitors, and evaluates the options and services required to meet the client’s health and human service needs. Case Management is seen as an encounter that involves assessment and basic care needs planning with the goal of independence for the client.
Due to the episodic nature of HIV, it is expected that clients will have varying levels of need throughout their enrollment in services. Some clients may demonstrate a low level of need and would therefore benefit from non-Medical Case Management. Distinct case management categories are described in detail under separate sections.
Providing information and assistance with linkage to medical case management and psycho-social services as needed; Enrollment in either medical case management services (active) or non-medical case management (direct services only) is not permanent; a client may move from one type of case management to the other depending on current circumstances. On-going and frequent assessment by a non-medical case manager and a medical case management supervisor should occur to ensure that clients receive the level of care that is appropriate. Routine screening tools and acuity scales should be used consistently by all case management providers. Activities in non-medical case management include, but are not limited to:
Providing benefits and entitlement counseling, including assisting eligible clients in obtaining access to public and private programs that they may be eligible for. This includes Medicaid, Medicare Part D, KADAP, KCHIP, Pharmaceutical Manufacturer’s Patient Assistance Programs, and other State and local health care and supportive services;
Advocating on behalf of clients to decrease service gaps and remove barriers to services;
Helping and empowering clients to develop and utilize independent living skills and strategies;
Providing unbiased and ethical services;
Helping clients with applications for all other resources available for their service needs
Activities that are not included in non-medical case management include, but are not limited to, activities that are related to medical care/treatment or adherence.
Case management services are home and community-based. Case managers will encounter clients in their environment, which may include a residence, a public facility, in the streets, or in the facilities of the case management service provider agency. Case management shall provide for a face-to-face or phone contact, and a home visit, as determined by client need.
Clients with a lower level of need, requiring only the direct services offered or referred by the agency (e.g., rental assistance and monthly medication refills), would benefit from Non-Medical Case Management.
Purpose & Goals of Service:
The purpose of Non-Medical Case Management is to facilitate access to support services for people living with HIV/AIDS ( PLWH/A ).
To enhance access to and retention in medical care for eligible people living with HIV/AIDS through a range of client centered services.
Emergency Financial Assistance
To provide limited financial assistance to clients that demonstrate inability to pay their short term temporary housing, electricity, gas, water/sewage, prescriptions not on the ADAP Formulary and medical bills due to a serious lack of money that prevents them from paying the bill including co-pays.
Food Bank and Home Delivery Services
Food bank/home–delivered meals are the provision of actual food or meals. It does not include finances to purchase food or meals, but may include vouchers to purchase food. Funds awarded under the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program may be used to purchase essential non-food household products as part of a Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funded Food Bank support service, including essential items such as:
Personal hygiene products;
Household cleaning supplies; and/or
Filters attached to a single water tap) in communities/areas where recurrent problems with water purity exist. Such devices (including their replacement filter cartridges) purchased with Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program funds must meet National Sanitation Foundation standards for absolute cyst removal of particles less than one micron. This policy does not permit installation of permanent systems for filtration of all water entering a private residence.
Funds may NOT be used for household appliances, pet foods, or other non-essential products
Services:
Food Vouchers. This service provides certificates or cards, which may be exchanged for food at cooperating supermarkets, or meals at clinics or social services agencies
Purposes of Services:
Reduce hunger, food insecurity, and improve the health measures of people living with HIV/AIDS in Metro Louisville
Medical Transportation
Medical Transportation is an allowable support service under the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program. Funds may be used to provide transportation services for an eligible individual to access HIV-related health services, including services needed to maintain the client in HIV/AIDS medical care. Transportation should be provided through:
A contract(s) with a provider(s) of such services;
Voucher or token/ gas card system
Services:
Activities of Medical Transportation include:
Bus passes/tokens/gas cards
Purpose of Services:
To meet the medical transportation needs of HIV infected clients residing in Kentucky.
Goals of Services:
To enable HIV positive clients, obtain covered medical services from both local providers and from tertiary care centers at some distance from their homes. Agencies can provide the services through contracted or by referral to the Medicaid transport in the area.
Early Intervention Services
Early Intervention Services (EIS) for Part B include counseling individuals with respect to HIV/AIDS, testing (including tests to confirm the presence of the disease, tests to diagnose the extent of immune deficiency, and tests to provide information on appropriate therapeutic measures), referrals, other clinical and diagnostic services regarding HIV/AIDS, periodic medical evaluations for individuals with HIV/AIDS, and provision of therapeutic measures.
Services
Early Intervention Services (EIS) are the provision of a combination of services that include the following as they relate to HIV/AIDS: counseling, testing, health education, referrals, and other clinical and diagnostic services designed and coordinated to bring individuals with HIV disease into the local HIV continuum of care. These services must focus on expanding key points of entry and documented tracking of referrals. EIS activities are designed to bring HIV positive individuals into Ambulatory/Outpatient Medical Care.
Purpose of Services:
To identify individuals who are unaware of their HIV/AIDS status and link them into medical care.
Goals of Services:
The goals of this initiative are to increase: l) the number of individuals who are aware of their HIV status; 2) the number of HIV-positive individuals who are in medical care; and 3) the number of HIV-negative individuals referred to services that contribute to keeping them HIV negative
Health Education / RISK Reduction
Health education/risk reduction is the provision of services that educate clients living with HIV about HIV transmission and how to reduce the risk of HIV transmission. It includes the provision of information about medical and psycho-social support services and counseling to help clients living with HIV improve their health status.
Services:
The provision of a set of prevention activities provided to individuals or groups to assist clients in making plans for individual behavior change; to promote and reinforce safer behaviors; and to provide interpersonal skills training in negotiating and sustaining appropriate behavior change. Activities range from individual HIV prevention counseling, to group interventions, and to broad, community-based interventions.
Purpose of Services:
The objectives for this service are:
To promote and reinforce safe behavior for the prevention of HIV transmission; To provide HIV information to clients to promote positive health outcomes; To promote adherence to medical care.
Goals of Services:
To reduce HIV-risk behaviors by changing attitudes, norms, and practices through individual counseling, community mobilization and organization, and community-wide events.
Outreach
Outreach services are programs that have as their principal purpose identification of people with unknown HIV disease or those who know their status (i.e., case finding) so that they may become aware of, and may be enrolled in, care and treatment services. Outreach services do not include HIV counseling and testing or HIV prevention education. These services may target high-risk communities or individuals. Outreach programs must be planned and delivered in coordination with local HIV prevention outreach programs to avoid duplication of effort; be targeted to populations known through local epidemiologist data to be at disproportionate risk for HIV infection; be conducted at times and in places where there is a high probability that individuals with HIV infection will be reached; and be designed with quantified program reporting that will accommodate local effectiveness evaluation. Outreach is for the identification, counseling, testing, informing, and referring of diagnosed and UN-diagnosed individuals to appropriate services, as well as linking newly diagnosed HIV positive individuals to medical care and medications.
Services include:
Providing Information/ Education
Maintaining Contact